Robert Muchamore

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Robert Muchamore at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2014

Robert Kilgore Muchamore (* 26 December 1972 in Tufnell Park, Islington , London ) is a British youth book author . In Germany he was best known for his book series Top Secret (English title: CHERUB ). This found 17 sequels.

life and work

Robert Muchamore was born in 1972 as the youngest of four children in Tufnell Park in the Islington borough of north London and grew up there. He comes from a simple background. From 1976 to 1991 he went through various schools and from 1988 worked on the side in a photo camera shop. His dream jobs were architect , photographer or writer . Shortly after graduating from school in 1991 and after a few short-term jobs, he started a new job as an heir investigator in a London detective agency . This lasted until 2005.

In 1998 he visited his sister in Australia for two months . When his nephew complained that he couldn't find anything interesting to read, Muchamore got the idea for a book project and began writing the first CHERUB book in 2001 , which he completed in 2002 and sent to various publishers . After several rejections, it was finally bought by Hodder Children's Books in 2003 and published in England in April 2004 under the title CHERUB: The Recruit . The publisher sold more than three million copies of this, and translations into 25 languages ​​were published thereafter. It tells the story of young people around James Adams and his sister Lauren Adams who work as child spies for an organization called "CHERUB", which is part of the British secret service MI5 . This book was also published in Germany in 2006 . It was published by cbt-Verlag with the title Top Secret 1 - The Agent . After he had published a second and third volume, Muchamore gave up his job as a private detective in 2005 in order to devote himself entirely to writing.

His books, in which depictions of violence are not taboo , celebrated ever greater successes; that same year, The Recruit (The Agent) won the Red House Children's Book Award for best youth book of the year. In 2008, CHERUB: Dark Sun, a collection of short stories for World Book Day , was published. The first season of the CHERUB cycle was ended in 2010 with the 12th volume CHERUB: Shadow Wave (German The Decision ). A new series called Henderson's Boys tells of the beginnings of CHERUB in World War II . The first volume, The Escape , was released in the UK in 2009 . In 2011, a reading of Muchamores at London's Highgate Junior School was canceled due to some complaints from parents and his books were removed from the school library.

Robert Muchamore started a new season with new characters with the book CHERUB: People's Republic in 2011. The main character this time is the young Ryan Sharma. Five volumes had appeared by mid-2016. The German translations are distributed under the title Top Secret (Die neue Generation) . Worldwide reading tours followed until 2012 , but despite his increasing financial success, he began to have doubts about what to do with the rest of his life. The resulting depression with suicidal thoughts led him to go to a mental hospital for three months .

After a year off work and new ideas, Rockwar was released in 2014 , which is about the young people Jay, Summer and Dylan who want to take part in a music competition . There are plans to continue this book too. The German translation is entitled Rock War - Unter Strom and was also published in 2014. Muchamore also wrote two other novels, but these have no connection to CHERUB or Top Secret or Henderson's Boys and were never printed as a book. Only the first two chapters of the first, Little Criminals , have been published on the Internet. The second, Home , tells the story of child soldiers in Africa ; However, this book was rejected by all publishers due to its brutality, but is available as an online version.

In 2016 the last volume of the Cherub series came out with a total worldwide circulation of fifteen million copies.

In September 2018, Muchamore published his stand-alone novel Killer T. The film and television company Sony is planning a ten-part TV series Cherub , the production of which began in late 2018 and which should be completed in 2020. His new book Arctic Zoo is due for the second half of 2019 .

Through the regular exchange with his readers and fans, Muchamore can empathize with them and is familiar with their preferences. The sustained and successful sales of his books give the wealthy Muchamore the independence and freedom to write what he likes.

bibliography

Top secret

season 1

season 2

Henderson's Boys

  • Henderson's Boys: The Escape (2009)
  • Henderson's Boys: Eagle Day (2009)
  • Henderson's Boys: Secret Army (2010)
  • Henderson's Boys: Gray Wolves (2011)
  • Henderson's Boys: The Prisoner (2012)
  • Henderson's Boys: One Shot Kill (2012)
  • Henderson's Boys: Scorched Earth (2014)

(all in English)

Rock war

  • Rock War (2014)
  • Rock War - The Camp (2015)
  • Rock War (2014)
  • Rock War - The Competition (2016)

more books

  • Home (only available as online version)
  • Little Criminals (two chapters available on the internet)

(both in English)

Prizes and awards

The first book by Robert Muchamore, CHERUB: The Recruit (German: Top Secret - Der Agent ) received the Red House Children's Book of the Year Award in 2005 . The series was also honored with around 10 other awards.

Web links

Commons : Robert Muchamore  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Robert Muchamore: Biography. In: muchamore.com. 2018, accessed on February 28, 2019 .
  2. ^ Georgia Dehn: World of Robert Muchamore, teen author. The author of the spy series Cherub talks to Georgia Dehn about writing for young readers, a bear called Jimmy and his love of Lego. In: telegraph.co.uk. August 4, 2012, accessed February 28, 2019 .
  3. ^ Alison Flood: Teen author Robert Muchamore banned from London school. The bestselling Cherub series author has had an appearance canceled and his books removed from the library of Highgate junior school. In: theguardian.com. October 26, 2011, accessed February 28, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Sony Captures CHERUB for TV. In: muchamore.com. Accessed February 28, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Arctic Zoo - Coming 2019. In: muchamore.com. Accessed February 28, 2019 .
  6. ^ A b Rhiannon Edwards: Robert Muchamore brings the real world to teenagers. The Cherub creator explains why he chooses tough topics. In: hamhigh.co.uk. John Cheadle, August 16, 2011, accessed February 28, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Robert Muchamore: Rock War - Hot Phase. cbt children's and youth book publisher, accessed on December 28, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Robert Muchamore: Rock War - The Competition. (No longer available online.) Cbt children's and youth book publisher, archived from the original on December 28, 2016 ; accessed on December 28, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.randomhouse.de
personal data
SURNAME Muchamore, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Muchamore, Robert Kilgore
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British author
DATE OF BIRTH December 26, 1972
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England